The President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Nana Owusu-Afari, has said Ghana's beleaguered manufacturing sector urgently needs relief from debilitating pre-production taxes."By moving taxes imposed on the local manufacturers before actual production till after production, as is done for those that manufacture within the Free Zone enclaves, government will have taken a huge step in redressing the serious cash flow limitations faced by Ghana's manufacturing sector," Nana Owusu-Afari said. The new AGI President in his inaugural speech implored "President Mills and his Administration to address this particular issue in the short-term," emphasising that doing so would level the playing field and contribute to the growth of industry.Ghana's manufacturing sub¬sector has in recently registered stunted growth, achieving only 4.5 percent growth against a general industrial sector growth of 8.1 percent in 2008.The industrial sector growth in 2008 was a 1.7 percent improvement on the 2007 performance, though it missed the projected target by 0.7 percent.Despite the gains made by industry in 2008, manufacturing attracted far less investment -including foreign direct investment (FDI) - than the services sector and other industrial sectors.Experts say though the 2008 figure was a major improvement, the performance is still problematic if the sub-sector is to generate the expected employment.Currently, while local industry is required to pay import duty on raw materials, operators in the Free Zone enclaves are exempted from such duty and are also able to sell 30 percent of their products on the local market.Manufacturers contend these challenges make them less competitive to operators in the Free Zones and imported finished products.President Mills in an earlier engagement with the AGI, prior to his election, stated he believed: "it is necessary to have a level playing field.“I will therefore allow for duty-free importation of raw materials and for any taxes to be paid after production, just as in the case of the Free Zones."Source: B&FT